Some conventional set top box (STB) systems include digital video recorders (DVR) and/or dual tuners. For example, the Microsoft Ultimate TV Digital Video Recorder has dual tuners and Picture-in-Picture (PIP) functions (e.g., pause, replay, etc. in one window while live action is viewed in another window). Programming for the PIP sources can be from over the air broadcasts, cable, satellite, the Internet, etc.
Such conventional approaches are constrained to playback, pause/record or record. In particular, conventional approaches do not have capabilities such as integration with other home appliances (e.g., intercom, doorbell, etc.).
It would be desirable to implement a system that provided convenient user functions that may be implemented on a variety of input sources.